DURBAN - LEADING figures in business in KwaZulu-Natal have called for the government to fast-track the Covid19 vaccine roll-out, cautioning that an extended level 4 lockdown will lead to businesses collapsing.
With the president expected to address the country on Sunday, there are worries that more jobs will be cut because of the impact of the lockdown.
Local entrepreneur and DJ, Sthembiso Ngcobo, who is in charge of entertainment at Max’s Lifestyle, expressed his concerns that should the lockdown be extended, they would have to let go of more staff.
“We are already working with restricted staff as they are serving only takeaways. We missed out on making money this past weekend of the Durban July. What normally would have been good business – we had no activity at all,” he said.
Another local business owner, Gary Clayton, who owns Keys on Davenport and Keys on Florida, said while everything might be closed, they still had bills to pay.
“While alcohol might be banned, and operations restricted, we still need to pay rent and operational licences,” he said. “If the government could introduce laws to cut down rent if there are no operations, this could help ease the situation a bit.”
Weighing in on the current state of the economy, co-chairperson of the KZN Growth Coalition, businessman Moses Tembe, said although the national government had recently reported signs of an economic recovery, it may not be reflective of the situation for the small-business sector.
“We need to understand the numbers in the context of the sectors that give that impression. We cannot look at numbers that are influenced by big companies that are doing well. The mining industry is one of the few industries that has been doing well during the pandemic, and these numbers are influenced by that. The groundwork shows more damage, the unemployment rate shows otherwise; people are not getting employed,” he said.
“There is a lack of focus, nothing is being said. We need more solutions on how to recover.”
Professor Bonke Dumisa said the economy of the province was centred around tourism and the level 4 regulations were detrimental to the industry.
“Yes, things had a chance to improve before the third wave, but not significantly, and a lot more needs to be done. Many people believe that more money needs to be put in to save businesses, but there is no money to put in; no economic model can save us now. We must focus and care more for the businesses that are surviving the lockdown,” he said.
President of the Black Business Council Sandile Zungu said the response to Covid-19 had been detrimental to businesses.
“Closing up the economy and opening it up again destroys the entrepreneurial spirit. Soon enough, people won’t even be able to afford to provide for their basic needs,” he said.
“The economy was already bad before the pandemic hit. The economic development plan envisaged that the economy would grow by 5 – 6% on an annual base compounded, but this was not achieved before the pandemic – so this should tell us how bad the economy already was.”
Zungu said something drastic had to be done.
“The Fourth Industrial Revolution would unlock the economy, but there is still no movement after numerous workshops on the concepts. There are young people with bright ideas, but they cannot manifest them because nothing is being facilitated,” he said.
THE MERCURY